HF PREFACE. "I HOPE to see London once ere I die," was the aspiration of Justice Shallow's Davy,* an aspiration that, in each succeeding year, is certainly being echoed by many a man and woman at home and abroad. To supply a guide-book for visitors, which, in the plainest and fewest words, should point out and describe the salient features of this great metropolis, has been the aim of the writer. He has had in view simply to state what is most worthy of being seen, and what is the best way of seeing it, leaving those who would study manners and customs, or the works of art, constructive, architectural, or pictorial, or the minute details which compose the vast result called London, to consult the volumes specially devoted to these large subjects. As any route proposed by the writer for visiting the various objects mentioned in the following pages would probably be unsuitable to as many persons as it assisted, he will leave each reader to devise his own scheme for making the tour of London. It seems desirable, however, to mention here, for the benefit of total strangers, what would be generally considered the objects best worth seeing. * Henry IV., Part II., Act v. 3. MA16879 The Thames Embankment. IN LONDON. The Custom House. The London Docks. Bank of England. The Monument. St. Paul's Cathedral. South Kensington Museum. Lord Ellesmere's Picture Gallery. Annual Picture Exhibitions. British Museum. Museum of Practical Geology. United Service Museum. India Museum. Lambeth Palace. Buckingham Palace. Whitehall Banqueting House. St. James' Park. Hyde Park, and Kensington Pall Mall and its Club Houses. The Foundling Hospital. Metropolitan Railway. The Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park. The Theatres. Tussaud's Wax Work Exhibition. Museum of College of Surgeons. The Soho Bazaar. Then there are various places where the English assemble in numbers and there see certain pageants, special musical |